Oakville amended its official plan for Parkway Belt West lands five months before Ontario revoked the 1978 plan

What Council adopted

On January 19, 2026, Oakville's Planning and Development Council passed By-law 2026-002, adopting Official Plan Amendment 74 to the Livable Oakville Plan. The Town-initiated amendment (file 42.15.72) applies to every property in Oakville that was subject to the Province's Parkway Belt West Plan, across Wards 1 to 7. The motion, moved by Councillors Allan Elgar and Jeff Knoll, carried without a recorded vote.

The Parkway Belt West Plan dated from 1978 and was Ontario's first provincial land use plan. Its goals were to reserve land for transportation and utility corridors, separate urban areas and link open space, in a band stretching 120 kilometres from Hamilton to Markham. In Oakville, the Town's Official Plan Review page explains, the Livable Oakville Plan simply labelled those lands "Parkway Belt" and deferred to the provincial plan, mostly with no local designation underneath. If the Province revoked its plan, the Town said, a formal process would be needed to give the affected lands a land use direction.

What OPA 74 does

The Town's notice of adoption lists four effects. On the plan's maps, the Parkway Belt lands are now outlined with a green dashed line so that a second, local designation can be seen beneath it. Select areas receive the Regional Natural Heritage System designation, with policies to match. Select areas receive other secondary land use designations. And new policies deal with the revocation itself and with areas left for further study.

The draft the Town published before its November 2025 public meeting shows how that was meant to work. While the provincial plan stood, its policies would prevail. Once it was revoked, the policies of the local secondary designation would apply. After revocation, any change to land designated Parkway Belt West would need an official plan amendment and a rezoning that protect natural features and the links between natural areas and parks, show a demonstrated need for the proposed use, and are compatible with what surrounds them. If no owner applied, the Town would set the designation and zoning itself. The draft also named lands north of Highway 407, outside the natural heritage system and the Greenbelt, as an area for further study. The adopted by-law was not available to read, so the final wording may differ.

The Province then revoked the plan

When Council voted, revocation was still only a proposal, first posted by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in October 2022. On March 30, 2026 the Ministry closed that file without a decision and opened two new consultations, which ran to May 14. On July 3 it posted its decisions: the Parkway Belt West Plan and its planning area were revoked effective July 1, 2026, along with the five Minister's Zoning Orders that remained from 1973. One of those, Ontario Regulation 481/73, covered parts of Oakville, Halton Hills, Milton and Mississauga.

The Province says planning in the former belt now defers to municipal official plans and zoning by-laws, with the Provincial Planning Statement still requiring that transportation and utility corridors be protected. Site-specific permissions that the Minister had approved as amendments to the zoning orders carry on inside each municipality's own zoning by-law. A separate provincial study is identifying a corridor to protect for future electricity transmission in and beside the former belt.

Where it stands

The last day to appeal OPA 74 was February 17, 2026. The Town's Official Plan Review page, checked on November 9, 2026, gives that date as the day the amendment was approved and mentions no appeal. The same page still describes the provincial revocation as something that may happen; it had not been updated to reflect the July 1 decision.

Which properties received which designation is shown on the amended schedules to the Livable Oakville Plan. Questions about how a specific parcel is now designated can go to the Town's policy planner on the file, Monika Keliacius, 905-845-6601 extension 3174.